


Mr. Mom

by gay_for_rey1999



Category: Archie Comics, Archie Comics & Related Fandoms, Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-04
Updated: 2018-01-04
Packaged: 2019-02-28 08:02:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,539
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13267170
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gay_for_rey1999/pseuds/gay_for_rey1999
Summary: Based on a prompt from Bughead-fic-wishlist about Betty being out of town when their son loses his first tooth and their daughter gets her first period. Manic Jughead ensues





	Mr. Mom

**Author's Note:**

> I feel like it's been YEARS since I've posted a one shot besides the two Christmas gifts I wrote. I hope y'all enjoy this :)

“I'll be back tomorrow night,” Betty soothed herself. “Try not to miss me too much.”

“Don't worry, Betts,” Jughead reassured her gently. “We're gonna have a good old-fashioned pizza movie night. Everything will be fine.” 

Before she could protest more, he pressed a firm kiss to her lips, causing their two kids, age 5 and 10 to let out a chorus of “Ewww!”

“Hey, you should be glad your parents still love each other,” Betty defended awkwardly, giving her husband one last peck on the corner of his mouth.

“Have fun, mama!”

“Good luck with your conference!” The kids shouted after her as she got in the car and drove down the road. 

“Who wants stuffed crust?” Jughead asked once they all returned inside from waving Betty off.

“Me!” His angels shouted in unison, taking off toward the living room to find something on Netflix.

\---

They ended up watching Star Wars: The Clone Wars on Netflix while they ate their pizza. Everything was going smoothly until the five-year old, Anthony, screamed out.

“Daddy, my tooth!” He panicked. “It's gone!”   
Sure enough, in his pudgy little hand was a tiny tooth, no bigger than a pea.

“Daddy what's wrong with my teeth?” He whimpered, big eyes filling with tears. 

“Well when you're a kid, like you and your sister, your teeth are pretty small. When they start to be too small for your mouth, bigger teeth start growing and they push the baby teeth out. That's why they get wiggly before they fall out. And you know what's even better?”

“What?” The little boy’s terror was replaced with excited curiosity.

“You can put your tooth on your window sill tonight and the Tooth Fairy will come!”

“What does the Tooth Fairy do?”

“She gives you money every time you lose a tooth!”

“Wow.” Anthony's eyes were filled with awe as he bolted up the stairs to put his tooth in his window. Sure, the tradition was to put it under the pillow, but it was so much easier to take it from the window.

\---

After both kids were fast asleep, Jughead crept into Anthony's room with a gold dollar coin in his hand. He snuck over to the window as quietly as he could before taking the tooth. Before he could put the dollar on the sill, Anthony woke up with a start.

“Daddy?” He muttered, rubbing his eyes. “What are you doing?”

Shit. Busted. “I'm making sure your tooth is in the right place for the Tooth Fairy, silly.”

“Oh, okay.” He rolled over and fell right back asleep, leaving Jughead reeling over his quick save. He left the coin on the window and crept back out of the room. He made his way back down the hall to the master bedroom, but was distracted by a loud cry. 

“Dad! Come quick! I'm bleeding!”

Now Fey, the ten-year-old, was in some sort of trouble. Of course this all had to happen when Betty was out of town. 

“Where are you bleeding?” The words tumbled out breathlessly as he fell into the bathroom, where he heard her yelling.

She couldn't answer through her tears. She just pointed to the toilet bowl where she was sitting. Jughead immediately understood what was going on.

“Oh, sweetie, this means you're becoming a woman. I'll be right back, your mom has supplies in our bathroom.”

He rushed down the hall to the master bathroom and rummaged under the sink. The first box he pulled out was tampons, which he didn't think would be very helpful to his ten-year-old daughter. After another minute of blind scavenging he finally found the box of pads. Jughead grabbed the entire thing and rushed back to the bathroom his kids shared.

“Okay sweetie, do you know how to use this?” He asked, slightly breathless. He groaned slightly when she shook her head. “Me neither. This is a problem.” He reached in his pocket for his phone and pulled it out awkwardly. “Okay Google, how do you put on a pad?”

“Showing results for 'how do you put on a pad’” the cool voice of Google Assistant parrotted. Jughead clicked the first link and skimmed through it before passing it to his scared daughter. 

“I'll step out to give you some privacy,” he muttered. Leaning against the wall, he random his hand roughly through his hair and sighed. His babies were growing up so fast, losing teeth and starting periods. And of course it all happened the one night Betty wasn't there. Finally, he heard a flush and the sink running before the door opened slowly. 

Jughead turned just in time for Fey to wrap her arms tightly around his torso and sob into his shirt. 

“It's okay, sweetie, it's gonna be okay. I'm not gonna lie, your period is going to suck. Your mom always complains about it, but it's all going to be okay. Do you know what the best cure for cramps is?”

“No,” came a muffled response.  
“Chocolate. And when you're older, wine. But since you still have eleven years until you can drink, chocolate is the best cure. Lucky for you, I know where your mom keeps her secret stash. I'll be right back.”

Jughead scurried back down the hall into his bedroom and dug through Betty’s underwear drawer. It was the only food in the house he never ate, since he knew his wife needed it. On the rare occasion he dipped into her stash, he always replaced what he took tenfold. 

He grabbed some dark chocolate and rushed back to his panicking daughter. “I know dark chocolate isn't your favorite, but it's the most helpful. Did you know that cacao releases endorphins in your brain that make you happier?” Fey shook her head and Jughead elaborated. “Since dark chocolate has more cacao, it releases more endorphins and makes you feel better, especially when you're on your period and feeling yucky.”

“Thank you, Daddy,” she sniffled, hugging him again after she ate her chocolate.

“Are you good now?” She nodded and wiped the tear tracks from her cheeks. “Okay brush your teeth and get back to bed, okay? And tomorrow, your mom will be here to help you with other stuff.”

Fey nodded and headed back into the bathroom, while Jughead finally made his way to his bed. His momentary relief at sinking into his bed at long last was overshadowed by the empty side of the bed. He hadn't spent a night without his wife in years, and decided to call her to alleviate some of the emptiness.

She picked up on the second ring and Jughead let out a huge breath he didn't realize he was holding. 

“Hey, Juggie, how was everything tonight?” Her voice seemed to ring out all the tension he held in a second. 

“Well in a word, a disaster. Anthony’s tooth fell out and he got scared, so I told him about the tooth fairy. Then, when I went to take his tooth, he woke up!”

“Shit,” she muttered. “What did you do?”  
“I told him I was making sure everything was ready for the tooth fairy and he went right back to sleep.” Betty's sigh of relief was audible through the phone. “Then I'm walking back to bed when I hear Fey yelling that she's bleeding so I rush in and turns out she got her first period.”

“Shit,” Betty repeated. “Is everything okay now? Should I cancel and come home?”

“No way, Betts. This meeting is huge. I got it taken care of, but neither of us knew how to use a pad so I had to Google it. Then I gave her some of your chocolate stash. I'll replace it, I swear.”

“Don't worry about that, Juggie. I'm just glad she's okay. Was she scared?”

“Terrified. And to be honest, so was I. They're growing up so fast, Betty. Before we know it I'll be walking her down the aisle. And to top off all the confusion from tonight, the bed feels huge without you in it. We haven't been apart for years.”

“Oh, don't remind me,” she huffed. “I had to move rooms to get a twin bed so I wouldn't miss you so much.”

“What if we had another kid?” Jughead blurted suddenly. “Sorry, that was really random.”

“No, no it isn't. I've been thinking the same thing lately. I think maybe it's time. I really miss having a baby around.”

“Me too, honey. Maybe when you get back, you could maybe go off the pill? The house is so empty now that Anthony is in school. I'm going crazy.”

“I think that's a wonderful idea. I love how much you spoil me when I'm pregnant. It's like being a queen.”

“You're my queen, that's for sure,” Jughead chuckled, taken aback by his own cheesiness.

“All this talk about having babies is making me need a cold shower,” she giggled. “I'll call you when I'm on my way home tomorrow. Good night, Juggie.”

“Good night, my love. I'll see you tomorrow.”  
Jughead hung up and laid back with his arms behind his head. He couldn't wait to devour his wife the next day, but until then, he needed a cold shower as well.


End file.
